In order to be registered as a patent agent or patent attorney in the United States, one must pass the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) registration examination, officially called the Examination for Registration to Practice in Patent Cases Before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and known informally as the patent bar. Background Persons who pass the registration exam and become admitted as patent agents before admission to a state bar are allowed to change registration to patent attorney upon supplying the USPTO with proof of good standing in a state or territorial bar. Tested subject matter The examination is intended to measure the applicant's familiarity with USPTO procedures, ethics rules, federal statutes, and regulations. The applicant is allowed to use an electronic copy of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) in the computer-based examination (and historically had access to a paper copy of the MPEP for the pencil-and-paper test), but is strictly prohibited from consulting any other written materials. A large number of questions typically deal with the proper drafting and handling of a U.S. patent application or international application. The examination is a partial open book exam in the sense that applicants have access to the MPEP and all exam answers can be found in or readily derived from the MPEP. However, the questions are difficult enough to ensure that an applicant not already thoroughly familiar with the general concepts of U.S. patent law and the structure of the MPEP will not be able to complete all questions within the allotted time. Structure The exam is a 100-question, six-hour, multiple-choice test. The test is divided into morning and afternoon sections, each comprising fifty questions completed within a three-hour time limit. The exam contains 10 beta questions which do not count towards the exam taker's final score, but they are not identified among the hundred. The required score to pass is 70%, or 63 correct out of the 90 graded questions. Over the past decade and a half, pass rates for the examination have ranged from 42.8% (2014) to 59.6% (2009). Before June 2004, the USPTO registration exam was a pencil-and-paper test given at approximately 15 locations around the country. The USPTO has moved to a computer-based examination which can be taken on any business day at any of several hundred Prometric locations around the country. A sample computerized exam is available to provide a